WCRF/AICR

Global Network

February

Helping Others through a Cancer Fighters Annuity

“DOC” CARTER, a native of Mississippi, grew up on a farm and, from an early age, raised vegetables with his dad.

Doc is a World War II veteran who served on a destroyer that escorted supply ships in the Pacific and detonated enemy mines along the way. He recalls his ship narrowly missing being hit by Japanese kamikaze planes.

After the war, Doc went to work at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, sharpening his skills in finance. Doc enjoyed a 30-year career there, and then retired to his Shenandoah mountain home in 1976, where he and his late wife, Joy, became avid gardeners. They grew sweet corn, pole green beans, Mississippi crowder peas, tomatoes, collards, mustard greens and okra.

“My father always grew more vegetables than our family needed, so he could give them to neighbors and friends from all over the community,” Doc recalls. “I’ve been eating healthy fresh vegetables all my life.”

When Joy developed some medical problems, it made Doc want to help others in physical need. His own diagnosis of slow-growing prostate cancer alerted him to the importance of cancer prevention and survivorship, two research areas funded by AICR.

Drawing on his financial expertise, Doc chose to support AICR by funding a charitable gift annuity. He was so pleased with it that he went on to fund additional gift annuities at AICR.

“Not only does it benefit me to receive a monthly income,” he says. “I get a lot of satisfaction from supporting cancer research. The gift annuity payments supplement my pension, and my payments are 85 percent tax-free. More than half of my initial donation for each annuity could be deducted as a charitable contribution.”

Doc celebrated his 86th birthday last fall, surrounded by his many friends. AICR is very grateful to Doc Carter for his generous giving.